418 BOOKS FOR THE BLIND PUBLISHED BY THE PHILADELPHIA PRESS. [Class XYIL
TITLES.
St. Matthew's Gospel -------
St. Mark’s Gospel — - — - — — - —
Select Library --------
Ruth and Esther - -- -- -- -
Student’s Magazine (published monthly) - -
Froverbs ----------
Church Music - -- -- -- -
Psalms and Hymns -------
Early Days of Washington, and Declaration of)Independence ------- /
Dictionary of Musical Terms - - - - —
Size.
Number
of
Vols.
Date
of
Publication.
Number
of
Pages.
Number
of
SquareInches ina Page.
4to.
1
1834
_
60
1
1833
160
60
1
1835
—
60
1
1835
-
60
folio.
5
1839
500
_
1
1838
50
_
6
1838-43
-
140
i
183D
96
-
)
1
-
86
_
:
3
1840
300
_
1
1840
68
-
-
1
1834
71
-
1
_
84
_
1
—
44
_
>
1
1839
25
-
?
1
—
—
remarked here that the pupils in all the American Insti-tutions read fluently in both the upper and lower-caseletters, but it is presumed that Philadelphia and Glasgow books will soon be entirely abandoned there; and as theBoston books can now be obtained in London at a pricecheaper than any of the live different systems of hooksprinted in Great Britain, it is to be hoped that they willcome into general use here. If it be thought that theletters are too small for adults to read with ease, booksmay be printed with larger types, and even then be lessbulky and expensive than any of the systems in arbitrarycharacters now in use.
In the year 1848 or 1849 the Virginia Institution setup a press, and lias printed several elementary and schoolhooks. The Boston type is adopted, with the exceptionthat capitals are used at the beginning of sentences andproper names. This alteration, in the opinion of theJury, is not an improvement, as the blind are thus com-pelled to learn two alphabets instead of one. The Vir-ginia books are well embossed, and it is hoped that infuture books capitals will be omitted.
To the American Bible Society at New York muchpraise is due for their commendable efforts in the circu-lation of the Scriptures among the blind. The stereo-type plates of the Bible in six volumes, executed at theBoston press, under the superintendence of Dr. Howe,now belong to this Society . They have printed a secondedition from the same plates, and annually distributegratuitously from 100 to 300 volumes.
It had ceased to be a matter of surprise in the UnitedStates that the blind could read, before the public atten-tion was loudly called to the subject in Great Britain,for we see that in 1830, there were two active printingestablishments for the blind in the United States ; by onethe whole of the New Testament had been published ina cheap form, in the common lower-case letters, and bythe other the four Gospels in Roman capitals. Let usnow return to the Society of Arts of Edinburgh , andtheir Prize Medal, to which we have already referred.It was not until the 31st of May, 1837, that the Society’sMedal was awarded. In 1S36, when the 19 differentalphabets were before the Committee of the Society, cir-culars were drawn up and distributed, with specimens ofthe several alphabets, to the various institutions for theblind in England and Scotland , and every means em-ployed to arrive at a correct result. The opinions of Mr.Taylor, of York, and Mr. Alston, of Glasgow , seem tohave been those which the society chiefly followed.They were in favour of the common Roman capital letter,merely deprived of the seruphs, or small strokes at theirextremities, and accordingly the prize was awarded to Dr.Frv, of London ; and on the 31st of May, 1837, a Medal wasgranted to him for the invention of an alphabet whichappears to have been in use since 1833 in Philadelphia .
On receiving the Society ’s circular in 1836, submittingthe forms of all the competing alphabets to him, Mr.Alston was struck with the simplicity of Fry’s, and imme-
diately conceived the idea of making such alterations ashe thought necessary, and putting it to the test. Thechanges made were simply to reduce the size of the lettersand render the faces thinner. On the 26th of October1830, he exhibited his first specimen of printing in reliefin the Roman capital letter at a public examination of theblind. It was Fry’s alphabet slightly changed to improvethe sharpness of the embossing. He then made a success-ful appeal for a printing fund. After great exertions andmost commendable perseverance he procured a printing-press, with two founts of type, and the other necessaryprinting apparatus. In January 1837, lie issued a fewelementary works. By March 1838, he had made suchprogress that the whole of the New Testament was printedin four super-royal 4to volumes. The type is greatprimer, and there are in the four volumes 023 leaves of 42lines to a page. In December 1840, Mr. Alston com-pleted the printing of the Old Testament in 15 super-royal quarto volumes, in double pica type. Of nine of thevolumes lie printed 200, and of the remaining six, 250copies. There are in all these 15 volumes, 2,535 pages,with 37 lines on a page. Mr. Alston was justly proud ofhis great work, the entire Bible , containing the Old andNew Testaments , in 19 volumes. In his “ Statements ofthe Education, Employments, and Internal Arrangementsadopted at the Asylum for the Blind, Glasgow , with ashort Account of its Founder, $’C.,” 10th Ed., 1846, Svo,p. 80, he says, “ this is the first Bible ever printed for theblind;” but in this he was evidently in error, as we haveshown that the greater part of it had long before beenprinted in Boston . We allude to these facts merelybecause it seems a matter of much regret that Mr. Alstonshould have devoted so much enterprise and money inproducing the Scriptures when lie might have ascertainedthat they had already been printed, and could have beenbought at less money than it would cost him to printthem. The main difference between the Glasgow and theBoston alphabets is that one is in the upper and the otheris in the lower case, which difference is certainly not ofsufficient consequence to demand two editions. Had heexpended the same energy and money in producing othervaluable books, and exchanged them with the Boston andPhiladelphia Institutions, as he was urged to do, the threeInstitutions would have been greatly benefited by thelarge outlay, and the blind of both countries would havehad a great increase to their library. On the 18th ofJanuary 1838, the officers of the Philadelphia Institutionwrote to Mr. Alston, informing him that they possessed aprinting press, and “ understanding that you adopt thesame character, it appears to our Board of Managementthat both Institutions would gain by an interchange ofvolumes.” Mr. Alston at once acceded to this proposition,and immediately shipped 150 volumes, being 10 full setsof the New Testament , and 50 single copies of the Gos-pels, besides multiplication tables and other works. Wesubjoin a complete list of the books issued from theGlasgow press since its first establishment,